The Medication Safety Programme aims to greatly reduce the number of New Zealanders harmed each year by medication errors in our hospitals, general practices, aged care facilities and across the entire health and disability sector.

Healthcare associated infection is one of the most frequent adverse events in health care worldwide. Up to 10 percent of patients admitted to modern hospitals in the developed world acquire one or more infections.

The Commission is increasing its focus on primary care and community services, aged residential care and disability services. The Primary Care programme aims to increase quality improvement capability in these areas.

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The Health Quality & Safety Commission works with health professionals, patients and consumers across health and disability services to improve the quality and safety of care. It’s about doing the right thing – and doing it right the first time.

The Medication Safety Programme aims to greatly reduce the number of New Zealanders harmed each year by medication errors in our hospitals, general practices, aged care facilities and across the entire health and disability sector.

Healthcare associated infection is one of the most frequent adverse events in health care worldwide. Up to 10 percent of patients admitted to modern hospitals in the developed world acquire one or more infections.

Harm from a fall can change a patient’s life – it’s the number one reason for admission to aged residential care. We are compelled to do something; we must do whatever we can to reduce patient harm from falls.

Reporting adverse events or incidents helps health services manage the risks of providing care. Incident management identifies problems and failures in the system so we can learn from them and prevent similar events from happening in the future.

The Commission supports consumer participation and decision making about health and disability services at every level – including governance, planning, policy, setting priorities, and highlighting quality issues.

The Commission is increasing its focus on primary care and community services, aged residential care and disability services. The primary care programme aims to increase quality improvement capability in these areas.

The Commission has further programmes under development to improve the quality and safety of health and disability services. More information on these programmes and other topics can be found in this section.

The latest report from the Perioperative Mortality Review Committee (POMRC) has found that there is a slightly greater likelihood that people will die following surgery, if that surgery is carried out in the weekend.

New figures from the Child and Youth Mortality Review Committee (CYMRC) show deaths of children and young people continue to decline. In 2014, 488 children and young people aged 28 days to 24 years died, compared with 620 deaths in 2010.

The Family Violence Death Review Committee (FVDRC) says agencies must take more responsibility for the safety of family violence victims, rather than expecting victims to keep themselves safe from abusive partners.